Mancation 2008

I hate when he's gone.

3 months old

For the whole scrapbooking thing--- This is Mila at officially 3 months old (well... 3 months a week ago.) She's:

-Super fat (as illustrated in the photos)

-Still cooing...

-Smiling like crazy ( I think she's more generous with gummy grins than Sophia was.)

-Sitting in the bumpo (as illustrated in the photo)

-Actually looking up at the chirping birds and mirror in the swing

-Possibly noticing her little hands

-Nursing a total of 5 times a day

-Going cross-eyed a lot when she focuses on something too close (for some reason Sophia never did that)

-Sleeping about 11 hours at night (seriously w/o a peep) and taking a killer 3 to 4 hour nap in the morning, plus normal ones later (I'm sorry I keep bragging about her sleeping, please don't boycott my blog Michelle, Lindsay, Rebecca, Christin...and anyone else with a baby) -- but what can I say? 3-month-olds aren't good at much so I figure I'd better give her some credit! Plus I know it has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with me, since I thought I did Babywise with Sophia and realized after reading it again that I really didn't-- not quite disciplined enough, so I figure I can brag on Mila's behalf.

-Weighing in a little under 17 pounds (at least she was a few weeks ago)-- 99th percentile for weight, 90th for height.

-Enjoying her first haircut- that's right, I couldn't handle the black tips reaching for the stars, so I gave her a little trim--- I know it's a bit of a flat-top right now, but I seem to have very little say in the matter, It's. Standing. Up.

-Loving little raspberries on her cheeks.

The House... or a very decorated (in an overly warm tone for me) version.

So I didn't want to put pictures of the model since our house really looks, and will look NOTHING like it. But since I want so badly to post pictures (this is for you Brooke), these will at least give you an idea. The outside of our house is dark brown (which I don't love, but that's ok.) You have to have some vision to imagine this house empty with white walls and mostly carpet :) In ours, the banister and cabinets are a dark espresso brown, and the granite is a gold/tan/brown swirly pattern, both of which I like more than the model. So we've got that on it.

These pictures are pretty much my favorite things about the house. The bathroom... need I explain? The entry to the master, we have all those cabinets... the uppers are an upgrade so we were lucky they came with ours (it fell out of escrow, so it had some nice upgrades included.) And the last picture is the view when you enter the house (ours is the mirror image... but I love the vaulted grand entrance with the staircase. You can see in that picture where the dining room is on the right, and the entrance to the family room which blends into the kitchen on the left (of the picture.)

March 25th!!! It's going to come so soon. I still can't figure out how we're supposed to come up with the time to pack up and clean up this whole house for a renter... but I'm sure all work (and deprivation since I'm no longer allowed to spend any money) will be worth it. We'll have space, so everyone, start planning your trip out!





And the floorplan for those of you as interested in houses as me.

A Baby's Blessing

This is about as good as it got with our 45 second window--- trying to synchronize happy kids, a bright sun, and tame winds is harder than you'd think.

Dad and Marybeth

Mila and Papa Kirk Teresita and her sweet Cannon... soon to be a big brother!

Three months and five days old. And our little Mila Grace was finally blessed in church today. She looked so chubby and wide-eyed up there compared to the usual newborn baby in white. She was happy, rosy cheeked, and SO sweet--- she really is a dream. Did I mention she's been sleeping from like 7:30-6:30 these days? She's snuggly and smiley and SO chunky and I love her to pieces.

Ross' parents, my parents, my dad and Mary Beth, my brother Ryon and his family, my sis-in-law, Teresita and Cannon, and Lizzie and Shad and their kids came over for my mom's BEST lasagna ever after the blessing... it was crazy and loud and wonderful. A special day.

Oh and one more thing... it is indeed official! We are the owners of the home on lot 264... and I still can't sleep. It's like every time my mind is finally clear... I remember my new Master Bath and it's like CHRISTMAS!!!! I can't wait to take pictures. It might be my favorite part of the house. AHHH! Closes March 25, it's going to be a crazy four weeks.

Let the Games Begin

(Picture: completely unrelated to post again--- apparently I can't bear to write without slipping one in. Obviously taken on cup-cake-making-and-eating day. Just thought her expression looked so sweet.... how deceiving.... it must just be the sugar in the batter because I'm pretty sure she was in time-out like a dozen times today... BEFORE her nap.)

An update: for those of you who are interested in this ridiculous game we're playing to purchase our next home.

So we planted ourselves first in line yesterday (Thursday) morning. Ross got there in the 7's and I came and took his spot at around 9 (thank you Lizzie and Kodi for watching Sophia ALL DAY!!) and spent the day there with Mila until his parents arrived a little before 4. We started out parked in the car. Doing the nursing, burping, diaper changing, and swaddling thing in the car is not fun. I felt so trashy----parked in my kid-messy car, having pretty much rolled out of bed, all I had going for me? I was wearing clean clothes. But that all changed very quickly as I was blown-out on, snotted on, and doused with spit-up of all levels, (mommies know what I mean?... there's the inoffensive too-much-milk-so-it-comes-right-back-up spit-up... and then it just gets way worse from there... the longer is has to sit in the stomach, the stinkier it gets.) Well I smelled of every kind. And I'd only been there like an hour. The sales agent got settled and felt sorry for me (in addition to my appearance and odor, I was still the only car and probably seemed a little silly) and she told me I could hang out in the loft of one of the models.

So we made ourselves comfortable and set up camp, Bluth style, in the loft of plan 1. The rest of the day was much better. It was only a little embarrassing when unsuspecting model-home-viewers reached the top of the staircase to find a lady draped in a not-so-subtle nursing cover sitting in the movie room next to the poster of Shrek. Wow.

Ross' dad insisted on sleeping in the car last night so Ross could get a normal night's sleep before work. They're so good to us. Thank goodness they're here for the blessing... otherwise I don't know what I would do. Between them, ourselves, and good baby-sitting friends, I think we've got it in the bag. We're first in line (oh yeah, there is a line of 6 or 7 cars now)--- we're getting our house.

The right one.

Pictures coming soon I'm sure.

Coming Up For Air

Another Friday at dance class

A couple of times he wanted to join in... but mostly Tanner watched the lovely sea of little girls in pink...

"Position One"-- never knew it could be so tricky and therefore SOOO cute-- after being corrected a few times, she focused so hard, kept her heels together causing her belly and bum to stick out while she hollered to the teacher "yook yook!" pointing adamantly at her properly spaced v-shaped feet with SO much pride. You can imagine MY pride.

Can you tell which feet belong to my little girl? Poor thing... mama can't get around to buying her a pair of shoes.

(These pictures have nothing to do with the post.... Tanner came with us to Sophie's dance class last Friday and I snapped a few before we went in... they’re super cute when they get together... for at least an hour before they fight crazy like brother and sister.)

Now on to the house:

It's official. We made the wrong decision. Thanks!--- to those of you who said the house was cute--- but it's not ours as of tomorrow. We just kept coming back to a home in a different neighborhood, (same builder, same great sale) that we've had our eye on for over a year. The home we bought was cheaper, in our current ward, close to my F&E Market, and included a neighborhood pool.... lots of selling features. It sold us quick... but once we got through all the chaos of the campers and the line and the urgency.... it just didn't feel right. We kept going back to look at the other house and agreed that we both felt SOOO much more at home there (spiritual? maybe... or maybe just because the cabinets were a gorgeous espresso and the granite my favorite color scheme--- and the master bath SO much bigger.... and for Ross? Pre-wired for surround sound!) Sounds a bit shallow... but the floor plan was so much more comfortable and the neighborhood... familiar. We have a lot of great friends who live there, it's zoned for a better school, and mostly... we just like the house a LOT more. I'm SURE now. And that's a good feeling. I'm sick of making pro/con lists.

Now for the stressful part. So this whole UnAuction makes for an interesting buying process. We can't just rescind and buy the other one. We get to camp out all OVER AGAIN!

Hooray.

The sales agent has informed us that another family wants our house and is supposedly going to be camping out as of tomorrow... for the Saturday sale. So we've been racking our brains for how it's all going to work. Sigh. Kind of exhausting. I'm pretty sure that between myself, Ross, and his parents (coming for Mila's blessing this weekend) we'll have our place in line covered as of tomorrow morning. We might be a lone car parked in a parking lot for a couple of days like a couple of fools. But we can't bear to lose the house after all this.

Sigh-- I seriously feel like we haven't been able to talk or think about ANYTHING else since last Wednesday or so... and now to go through it all over again this weekend... kind of a bummer. But if we get it... it will ALL be worth it! And there will be so many pictures to come! I am SOOOO excited about this house. We'll have a guest room without a baby in it... so anyone's welcome to come visit. :)

So I posted our first rental ad on Craigslist Sunday, and we got two calls today. Hooray! One family came by to look at it tonight, cute couple with a little girl... could it be any more perfect?! We have a pink room waiting for her and everything! I'm feeling hopeful--- wish us luck.

Need a rental?

So since I do know a lot of people, locally, who blog-- I thought there could be some wisdom in posting our rental on mine. So just in case any of you who live in my world (you know who you are), know someone who needs a rental, and would appreciate a cute three bedroom house in a gated community with a great, big landscaped backyard, beautiful laminate wood flooring, window and door casings, large baseboards, and a washer and dryer included (a refrigerator also if needed).... that's WALKING distance to my much-loved Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market and the upcoming Super Target-- send them my way. We're asking $1395. Association and gardener are included. They could peek at the pictures here and send me an email at lillie_biesinger@yahoo.com

Thanks!

We did it.

It's sort of a long story and I still don't have time to write it. But we ended up buying this house this weekend. AHHHH!! The longest part of the story is that we're not sure it's the right house. We've known for a while that we wanted more space, but this UnAuction DR Horton was having forced us into making the decision a bit quicker than planned. The prices were pretty amazing on two different houses that we loved. Two different neighborhoods but same builder- same sale. So we're in the process of figuring out if this house is going to stick, or if we're going to rescind, and do the process all over again this weekend and fight for a different house. Sigh. The most exciting and exhausting thing we've done in a while. It's sort of a big decision, buying a house. Turns out I don't really do so well with big decisions. Wish us luck!

What did you do?

We baked cupcakes, got Macaroni Grill take-out and sparkling lemonade from Fresh and Easy, and looked through the windows of new homes after hours with our emergency preparedness car-flashlight. That was the most romantic part of Valentine's Day. Did I mention that it's 12:37 am, I should be in bed, but can't get myself there since I'm sleeping alone tonight. Ross is camped out for the night in a parking lot about a mile away, awaiting the 9 am "UnAuction" at a local new neighborhood . Yup. A sale on new homes. what? I'll save that post for another day. For now, this was one piece of our Valentines Day.

At what point is imitation no longer flattery, but just plain single-white-female? On Valentine's morning I looked at Allie's blog and saw her pretty pink cupcakes and thought.... mmmm... I want pretty pink cupcakes, so I made some, and took pictures of them, because.... well... that's what Allie did.

I like to think as long as I give credit where it's due, I can keep 'borrowing' ideas from others. :) (In my defense, turquoise is the only color of cake stand that I have (thankyou Marnie).. that's not to say I wouldn't have gone out to buy one just to get as close to Allie's pics as possible... but not necessary this time.)

Yum. Hope you had a happy Valentines Day.

Brielle

This little doll came over with her sister to 'jump' on the trampoline today... She was too cute, and my camera was handy, and it's midnight and I need to go to bed, and we've been really busy, but I wanted a new picture to pop up with my blog.... so here's Brielle. Isn't she beautiful?

aawwwww....

They were all dressed after church, (with only a little post-nap hair from Sophia), and I made Ross throw them in a chair outside for the chance at a both-girls-dressed-at-the-same-time photo. I got two I liked, which was a bigger feat than it seems in like a 40 second time span. The other five had Sophia making a face trying to get Mila off her lap and Mila's head resting on the wooden armrest with Ross's man-hand putting a wrench in my little-angel-girl feel. That's why the first is cropped super close. Which one would you put on your wall? I mean if you were me... don't feel any pressure to mat and frame my girls in your house.

I know... the hair. It will go nowhere but up. Cool right?

"Who gave this girl a comb?"

Guess. What.

Sophia took her first dance class and it was top five. On the list of cutest things I've EVER seen and will ever see. She went with her cute friend Mia (thank you Kodi! I would have never known where to find this perfect class.) It's "dance, play, and pretend" and they danced with scarves, balloons, flowers, and lay on the floor in a stretch like the Little Mermaid. I died. I took like a hundred pictures of course. And spent the entire span of Spider-Man 3 last night trying to force myself to delete some (What were they thinking when they made that movie?! Some space-sent black slime managed to become three of the way too many 6 or so villains-- what?) Sophia loved every second of it, (the class, that is) and I can't wait to get her a tutu and shoes (did you notice she's the only one without) and go back next Friday. This might have to be a weekly post until I tire of the cutest scene I've ever seen.